ents and contractors, through whose
hands it passed, leaving but $200,000 net proceeds from a shipment of
about a million dollars' worth.

Mr. Lee has paid me the amount I advanced on my plantation pay-rolls
for July and August. I have finished up my pay-rolls for September and
October and intend to get him to go and pay off my people for these
months with my funds when paying the other plantations for June and
July.

In the prolonged absence of window-glass, I have resorted to other
expedients known to Irishmen, etc., but can't keep the wind out of my
chamber these frosty nights by any amount of ingenuity. Shingles might
do it, but they are as difficult to obtain as the window-glass, and
the towels won't stay put in a high wind.

We are very sorry to hear of Captain Hooper's serious illness. He had
kept up his strength so long on quinine during the summer, that a
break-down must be dangerous now. I imagine that General Saxton misses
his indefatigable zeal and straightforward gentleness.

I want to see what is to be done at the tax-sale and what sort of a
title is to be given. For I don't think I shall stay here another year
unless I can control my men better than I have done, and I don't
believe a better control can be had with the long-delayed payments
rendered almost necessary by the lumbering machinery of the
Quartermaster's department.

The next letter is from C. P. W., and sets forth the result
of his cogitations on plantation methods.

FROM C. P. W.

_Nov. 16._ The slip-potato crop is the only crop by which to judge of
the negroes' capacity to take care of themselves. This crop they have,
as a general rule, raised entirely by themselves, and for their own
consumption; they found their own manure, and received no help except
the use (small) of the Government teams on the place. The crop
exceeds, on the average, one hundred per cent. that raised by their
masters,--I mean that each man gets twice as much as he used to when
they worked and shared in common; and in some cases the tasks bear
twice as much. "They beer uncommon." "If we live to see," all the
crops next year, under a management that will encourage and
stimulate, will be proportionally as good as this 'tater crop. One
thing the people are universally opposed to. They all swear that they
will not work in gang, _i. e._, all working the whole, and all sharing
alike. On those places where the root 'taters were thus worked this
year, the cro